richardtrincell

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BlackBerry maker Research in Motion reported a 37% jump in cash after the bell Thu., but its gloomy outlook punished the stock friday. Research In Motion's shares plunged 17% on Fri. after the smartphone maker's economic third quarter outlook recounted thursday missed expectancies. The Waterloo, Ontario-based rim, which makes the BlackBerry, reported earnings after the end of trading thursday.

A displeasing forecast punished rim shares more than 2 hours after the open. Shares slid $14.15, or more than 17%, to close at $68.91.

'I would look at this as an overreaction, and a buying opportunity,' claimed Nick Agostino, analyst at Research Capital. 'The report was lighter than expectations, but to say 'significantly lower' is a bit strong.'

Excluding one off charges, edge ( RIMM ) claimed it earned $1.03 per share in its second financial quarter, up 17% from earnings of 86 cents a share last year. Revenue jumped 37% to $3.53 bln. Researchers were expecting earnings of $1 per share on revenue of $3.62 bill.

in the quarter, which finished Aug. Twenty-nine, edge stated that it shipped 8.3 million smartphone devices.

But RIM's outlook was not as rosy. For the 3rd fiscal quarter, which ends in Nov, rim stated that it expects revenue of between $3.6 billion and $3.85 billion. Analysts were expecting $3.92 billion.

The company expects revenues per share of between $1.00 and $1.08, while researchers forecast $1.05. RIM is expecting to ship between 9.2 million and 9.9 million units in the third quarter.

'Expectation is certainly a key risk,' Agostino announced, noting that rim will upgrade plenty of its devices in its 3rd quarter.

Agostino claimed he left his rating unvaried at'buy,' with a price target of $98.

'I'm praying that as we move toward Nov and get more visibility on new devices and launch dates, the stock will get a reaction,' he revealed. 'We'll need to see about Quarter 4 outlook, but it should be a fascinating few months for these guys.'

Apple's iPhone may be in the ascendant, but competing players continue to face issues in the space, with Research In Motion shares falling eleven percent on the pre-market this A. M. and the recently-introduced Palm Pre phone this morning discounted to just $100 on Amazon. Palm Pre carrier, Sprint, recently cut the price of the Pre to $150 ( after discount on a 24-month contract ), but Amazon today discounted that. That could be a $400 saving on the first retail price...and probably not a pretty sign for Pre... Palm was in the news a lot this week, with market rumors speculating Nokia may make a bid to take over the company rising at the same time as Palm issued a major tranche of new stock options in a scheme to pull in cold, hard investment cash. The company also took a blow this week when the USB Forum declared it in the wrong to create iTunes syncing on the Pre, and demanded to understand why it was using Apple's USB Vendor ID number in order to achieve this without Apple's authorization. The company now has just a few days to clarify itself. Over at Research In Motion, strong device sales in the just-gone quarter could not hide Wall Street's discontent at the organization's confession it predicted to miss researcher targets in its Q3 cycle. Net profit declined 4% from this time last year to $475.6m on sales of $3.53bn ( up 4% y-o-y ). But researchers weren't satisfied the company could maintain momentum, especially as it chases the low-end markets, with Goldman Sachs, Raymond James and Deutsche Bank all issuing downgrades, driving a sell-off in company stock.

The title of Warren Berger's latterly made public book --'Glimmer : How Design Can change your Life and maybe Even the World' -- is bold. The common understanding of what'design' means to many of us is the way something looks or feels : the look of an iPod or a movie poster, furniture or everyday appliances, for example. But , what if it was, as Berger claims,'a way of having a look at the world with an eye toward changing it?' 'And its beliefs are accessible to anyone.'

'The democratization of design that began a quarter century ago with the advent of Apple's Macintosh PC has moved to a completely new level in the age of interactive, social network media,' he writes. CNN latterly spoke to Berger about design, technology and Bruce Mau, a designer he collaborated with to draft the book. Below are excerpts from the interview. They've been edited for length and clarity. CNN : How can design change the world? What design basically can do, it can solve Problems on a case-by-case basis around the world. As it does that, it changes the world, as it changes the reality for folk wherever the situation is happening. If design can change water delivery in a certain part of the Earth, then it changes that part of the planet for those folks. CNN : When we speak of design, we usually think of the look of a book jacket or a Web site, or we think of design. What do you suspect of when a person says design? Berger : it's a word that has about a million different definitions. What I use in my book -- the working model in my head -- is that I prefer to think of it as creative problem solving. Basically, design tries to take on a challenge or a need and figure out how to figure it out. And then going thru a method of prototyping or testing those ideas out to determine if they really work. There's an artistic kind of design that is's actually a bit more different, that's more self-expression. CNN : With that definition, does the issue solving always have to come from what we conceive of as professional designers, or is it able to be just anybody? Berger : When you enlarge the meaning of design, it's no longer limited to pro designers. Actually, designers now who are taking on massive issues are doing so -- if you look at the gigantic design firms like Smart Design or Bruce Mau Design --- what they are doing is a very multidisciplinary approach to solving Problems. That's's one of the gigantic trends in design now. everyone's a designer now, in a way. Folk now have more chances to design on their lonesome than they ever did before. They have more tools to do it. They have got a little more knowing how to creatively solve Problems and express themselves than they did ever before. There's a little bit of a democratization of design going on now.

The title of Warren Berger's lately made public book --'Glimmer : How Design Can change your Life and perhaps Even the World' -- is bold. The common understanding of what'design' means to many of us is the way something looks or feels : the look of an iPod or a flick poster, furniture or everyday appliances, for example. 'The premise of this book is that design can be applied to just about any challenge,' Berger writes. 'And its beliefs are accessible to anyone.' New and improved technology -- which is also less expensive -- and increased connectivity are creating a class of'citizen designers,' who are looking to find solutions to old Problems, Berger announces.

CNN latterly spoke to Berger about design, technology and Bruce Mau, a designer he cooperated with to pen the book. Below are excerpts from the interview. They've been edited for length and clearness. CNN : How can design change the world? Berger : When folks talk about design changing the world, it tends to sound a little grand and daft, because they think about design as, in one fell swoop, changing the world and solving our Problems. If design can change water delivery in a certain part of the Earth, then it changes that part of the planet for those folks. CNN : When we speak of design, we often think of the look of a book jacket or a Web site, or we think about architecture. Berger : it's a word which has about a million different definitions. What I use in my book -- the working model in my head -- is that I think of it as creative problem solving. Essentially, design tries to take on a challenge or a need and work out the easy way to solve it. It sometimes does so thru creative processes that involve really studying people to figure out what's lacking in their lives, what's required and going thru a large amount of blue skying to come up with a lot of concepts. And then going through a process of prototyping or testing those ideas out to work out if they really work. There's an artistic sort of design that's's really a little more different, that's more self-expression. But when you talk the kind of design I am talking about in the book, it's more just any of creative problem-solving. CNN : With that definition, does the difficulty solving always have to come from what we conceive of as professional designers, or is it able to be just anybody? Berger : When you enlarge the definition of design, it's no longer limited to professional designers. They're using designers, they are using engineers -- plenty of the time, it's a extraordinarily multifaceted problem, and you need a lot of different people in making the solution. That's's one of the gigantic trends in design now. everyone's a designer now, in a way. They have more tools to do it. They have got a little more knowing how to creatively solve issues and express themselves than they did ever before. There's a little bit of a democratization of design going on now.

On Friday we had Jason Schwartz, an options strategist long on Apple (AAPL), explaining in Seeking Alpha Why Apple's iTouch Tablet Will Become Its Flagship Product.

On Monday we heard from Michael Scalisi, an IT manager writing in PC World, that the Rumored Apple Tablet Is a Train Wreck.

If the first hurdle of a successful Apple product is to capture the imagination of the chattering classes, this one is half-way there.

Of course, we don't really know what the product is, what it looks like or when, if ever, it will be released. But that hasn't stopped the trade press from weighing in - and quickly taking sides.

In this context, the most useful thing I've read lately is Harry McCracken's PAQ - for Possibly Answered Questions, a kind of pre-emptive FAQ - in Monday's Technologizer.

McCracken sorts through the myriad details that have been bruited about in nearly two years of press speculation (and, reportedly, four years of product development under Steve Jobs' watchful eye) and draws a plausible picture of the rumored device and what it might be good for.

Among the tablet's salient features, as McCracken sees it:

* Size: A 9.7-inch screen with something like 1024-by-600 pixels (the iPhone, by comparison, has a 3.5-inch screen and 480-by-320 pixels.* Operating System: A version of the iPhone OS that supports a larger screen and special tablet features.* Interface: Like the iPhone's, it will be optimized for Web surfing, music, movies, very light e-mail, and other applications that don't involve much data entry.* Applications: From the 65,000 available on the App Store.* Connectivity: Wi-Fi for sure. Bluetooth almost certainly. The big unknown: will it have cellular broadband?* Other features: A front-mounted camera for video chatting. Perhaps GPS for navigation. Maybe an SD slot for importing photos. No Firewire or USB, says McCracken, although we don't see why not.* Cost: More than a netbook ($500 at the cheapest) and less than a MacBook ($999), unless subsidized by a cellular carrier. (In which case the monthly bills will push cost into the thousands of dollars over the life of a contract.)* Availability: AppleInsider is pretty sure it's early next year. The Financial Times is even more certain it's September of this year. As McCracken points out, they can't both be right.

Apple has on order a large number of 10 inch LCDs. They just brokered a deal for a large amount of flash memory. They have handwriting recognition from the Newton days and on Mac OS X at times… They have voice recognition from quite some time ago as well. The voice recognition of the current iPhone is pretty decent. Stir it all in a blender and I'd say a 1024×600 or maybe 1200×800 or higher. The iPhone is 160 pixels per inch and they likely want similar resolution for product differentiation and compatibility with iPhone perception of sizes of objects.

I'd guess a fixed battery. And lifespan of 20 hours use are goals. Maybe 16 hours on time. Lots more room for the battery and the processor is the same power consumption.

Of course it could be a novel technology display blending e-ink and LCD or OLED to save power.

Regional banks can no longer ignore the elephant in the room -- their exposure to the commercial real estate bust.Though housing markets remain weak, analysts expect credit problems over the next year to center on commercial real estate -- mortgages on office and apartment buildings and shopping malls, as well as construction, development and industrial loans.U.S. banks hold some $1.8 trillion worth of commercial loans, according to Federal Reserve data. Big regional banks, including PNC (PNC, Fortune 500) of Pittsburgh, KeyCorp (KEY, Fortune 500) of Cleveland and BB&T (BBT, Fortune 500) of Richmond, Va., have more than half their loan books in commercial loans.With financing markets locked up and the economy still mired in recession -- unemployment is at a 26-year high while capacity utilization, a key measure of industrial production, recently hit a record low -- observers fear a wave of loans will go bad in coming quarters."The problems facing commercial real estate are severe and will likely take many years to resolve," Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkus told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress this month. He said the biggest losses are likely to come from banks' $550 billion of construction loans, such as loans to homebuilders.Banks are already bracing for impact. Higher credit costs led to second-quarter losses at banks ranging from Atlanta's SunTrust (STI, Fortune 500) to Delaware's Wilmington Trust (WT). Zions Bancorp (ZION), which operates primarily in Utah, California, Texas and Nevada, was among those forecasting deeper losses on problem commercial real estate loans."It is still a pretty crummy economy out there and we are seeing deterioration in all of it," Zions Bancorp chief financial officer Doyle Arnold said in a conference call with analysts and investors.Accordingly, banks have been adding to their reserves for future credit losses. But with more borrowers falling behind on their loans, it's not clear that these so-called reserve builds will be enough.SunTrust, for instance, added $161 million in the latest quarter to its loan loss reserve, citing continuing housing market deterioration and "increasing economic stress in the commercial market."But nonperforming assets rose even more, jumping to 4.48% of total loans from 2.09% a year earlier. As a result, the bank's loan loss reserve tumbled to 53% of nonperforming assets from 70% a year earlier. Investors like to see a number nearer 100%. BB&T, for instance, has 101% coverage.Thin reserves mean SunTrust "may face material provisions ahead," according to a report from analysts at research firm CreditSights. That could take a toll on profits over the next year.Similar trends are playing out at Comerica (CMA), whose loan loss reserve has fallen to 78% of nonperforming loans from 91% a year ago, and Zions, which fell to 65% from 79%.The increase in nonperforming assets comes as some real estate players complain that banks are sitting on bad loans rather than liquidating them -- a trend they claim is suppressing new lending and compounding the problems in a falling market."The rate at which these troubled loans are being resolved has been sluggish," James Helsel, treasurer of the National Association of Realtors, told the Joint Economic Committee July 10. "Over $60 billion in assets have become distressed this year but only $4 billion worth of commercial loans have been resolved so far."Though the banking industry succeeded in raising tens of billions of dollars in new equity in the second quarter, some expect the financing picture to remain cloudy, adding to price declines.Office rental rates have fallen 23% in New York and 11% in Washington from their 2008 highs, commercial property manager Jones Lang LaSalle said in its monthly market perspective newsletter this month. Meanwhile, office vacancy rates jumped to 14% in Manhattan and 11% in Washington in the first quarter, ref[...]